A. Kudriavtseva, E. Rezvan

Translation of the Qur'an and Ethnography of Daily Life

Key words: The Qur’an, pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia, daily life, material culture, comparative textual analysis of the Qur’anic terminology and pre-Islamic poetry

Abstract: The analysis of the major academic trends allows to suggest that a new level in the understanding of the most pressing issues in the Qur'anic studies will presumably be achieved during the upcoming twenty to thirty years and will come upon the completion of a number of projects aimed at studying and publishing the most ancient Qur’anic manuscripts similar to the project started but left unfinished by Sergio Noja Noseda, as well as upon the completion of a number of studies on Ancient Arabian dialects and comparative textual analysis of the Qur’anic terminology and pre-Islamic poetry. Last year as part of the new Russian Qur’anic translation preparation we started the project entitled “The Qur’anic lexicon as a source on material culture of Arabia at the turn of the 6th—7th centuries”. It provides for studies of lexico-semantic groups of the Qur’anic language that allow to distinguish and describe most important daily life structures (trade, cult, cattle farming, agriculture, crafts, cropping, houses and settlements, household features and household culture). In addition to etymology of the material culture terms, models of their spread and distribution are studied as well.